It feels like it’s all over.
Well, I still have another opening to attend, and then prepping the other space, but most of my work for PUGG is done. I remember hearing whispers about it two years ago in school, and it’s weird to think of what has happened since then. Last year started off slow, and a semester late, but it laid the foundations for the rest of my experience at PUGG. Going to The School (A Jack Shainman Gallery) taught me how to hang work in the classical gallery format. The number 59 became precious to my coworkers and I, helping us hang a 3’×5’ painting for the Senior Seminar Show of 2016. Working on the space at 591 Broadway showed me how to show art to people without actually having a space for them to walk into.
My senior year working with PUGG was much more eventful. I helped hang the work for numerous artists in the Int-O Yellow Gallery, and a total of four alumni in three separate shows for the PUGG Gallery. Most of the work involved fixing the space so that work could be hung, but hanging each show provided different challenges. Issues with wall materials and the fragility of art pieces prolonged hanging to a few days in most instances, but the last show held was installed in only one day. Much of the time spent was on deciding where to put the work of twelve different students, and the large amount of people spread out between both 624 and 626 Broadway slowed installation. Usually, I’m open to changes in layout of certain pieces, but hanging my own work was too stressful to remove myself from it. Due to the nature of my work, I couldn’t display it in a traditional gallery setting, but I had a lot of space for it.
Putting up the final piece was bittersweet for me. I went to the Senior Seminar Shows since I was a freshman in high school, and that inspired me to take the class. Last year, I was there to see the previous students hang their work, and now I realized that it was the last time that I would be hanging up artwork. After this show, I would never have the chance to knock on a wall to see if it could support a heavy painting. I wouldn’t spackle and sand over a wall without thinking about how it’s becoming more spackle than drywall. I wouldn’t be so close to the gallery that I spent hours preparing and monitoring for people to enjoy art.
I know that my time at PUGG may be over, but the group has so much more to offer. Spending the last year and a half in the program was a highlight in my high school career, and I’m proud to have been in the inaugural group. I’m graduating soon, but the experiences that PUGG gave me will stay.
Ashleigh Arrington
Graduating Member of PUGG
